Social Media Marketing is changing. Get ahead of the curve!

by Janet on August 8, 2010

About 6 months ago, I was speaking to a colleague of mine about how social media marketing is changing. I’ve know this for awhile now, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. The same old way of marketing on line doesn’t work anymore. I have also noticed that the “gurus” who once used to be the king and queens of sold out programs are searching for a new way too because they know if they don’t change, they will have to give their crowns to those who do.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but I think you know what I mean.

Social Media was started, and especially Facebook, with a couple of college guys needing a place to meet, network and socialize with each other on-line. We all know how that grew into a huge networking community that has grown beyond their wildest dream. The key word here is ‘networking’!

Social networking is not going away anytime soon so we have to embrace and change with it or lose out on clients that are looking for your products and services.

The biggest problem I see with social media marketing right now is, everything that used to work is no longer working. You can’t try to sell a class, a program or even a free teleclass and expect to get lots of people to sign up who are eager to buy. People are getting smarter. They don’t want to be taken advantage of with promises of big payoffs and successful businesses that don’t become reality. They are looking for a return on their investment!

So, what now? How do we navigate social media in this ever changing environment? First, we have to let our real personalities show through everything we do and say. Forget about putting on the face of someone else, and acting and doing what others do. Lets change it up!

Originality is the name of the marketing game now. We have to market to others as we want to be marketed to. Sound familiar? Will that new real personality infused marketing approach appeal to everyone? NO, but that is okay. Not everyone is your ideal client.

The new ideal client wants to know that if they sign up for a program, and do the work asked of them, that they will see results. Smoke and mirrors won’t work in this business any longer.

Lets say for example that you sign up for a course because the person you have been following and listening to for awhile sounds very interesting and you feel like they might be the perfect mentor to teach you xyz. So you sign up for their program and guess what, they are not at all like they seemed, or you perceived them to be. Now what? It’s not pretty, believe me!

So I ask you.

What can you do differently today to market your business? What would happen if you decided to infused your own personality into your marketing? Would it be scary? Or would it be freeing?